Concentration in the U.S. Wine Industry
No other section of the supermarket offers as many choices as the wine aisle. A typical retailer is likely to have hundreds of unique wines on its shelves. Just three firms, however, account for more than half of the wine sales in the United States. What impact does this industry concentration have on consumer choices? To answer this question we conducted an inventory of wine offerings at 20 retailers in Michigan. We recorded more than 3,600 unique varieties of wine, and traced their relationships with more than 1,000 different firms. Continue reading Concentration in the U.S. Wine Industry
Latest Book
Howard, Philip H. Concentration and Power in the Food System: Who Controls What We Eat? London: Bloomsbury Academic (February 25, 2016). Nearly every day brings news of another merger or acquisition involving the companies that control our food supply. Just how concentrated has this system become? At almost every key stage of the food system, four firms alone control 40% or more of the market, a … Continue reading Latest Book
Organic Processing Industry Structure
The development of the USDA National Organic Standard in place of differing state/regional standards was widely predicted to accelerate trends of increasing consolidation in this sector. The first draft of the standard was released in 1997; what changes in ownership and control have since occurred? Continue reading Organic Processing Industry Structure
Visualizing Fair Trade Coffee
The fair trade certification has entered a period of major change. The recent departure of Fair Trade USA from the international certification system led by Fair Trade International (formerly FLO), and its decision to develop separate US standards that permit certification of plantation-produced coffee, cocoa, and other crops, has thrown the meaning of the US fair trade label into question. Continue reading Visualizing Fair Trade Coffee
The Food System
The food system involves all of the steps required to produce food and get it to our plates–from farming and processing to distribution and consumption. Continue reading The Food System
Foodborne illness
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that the incidence of some foodborne diseases declined from 1996 to 2004, but there has been little progress since then. Continue reading Foodborne illness
The Availability of Michigan-Produced Wines in Southern Michigan Retail Locations
The wine industry is important to the state of Michigan. In 2005, the wine industry in Michigan added $286 million to the state’s economy. The state is the ninth largest producer of wine grapes in the country and the fourteenth largest producer of wine. The number of wineries in Michigan, as well as the total acreage of wine grapes has steadily increased since the 1970s. Continue reading The Availability of Michigan-Produced Wines in Southern Michigan Retail Locations
Wine Labeling
Wine comes in many colors, varieties, and vintages. It has long been a confusing product to the U.S. consumer, who is faced with hundreds of choices in the typical grocery store. However, wine is mysterious in another way besides the debate over which variety to buy. Its nutritional value is quite difficult to determine compared to other beverages. Continue reading Wine Labeling
Organic Farm Concentration
Each cell in these “treemaps” represents a single farm, and its size is proportional to the sales or acreage category to which it belongs. Caution should be used in interpreting these graphics because the top categories are truncated (i.e. a farm with $10 million in sales is shown as the same size as a farm with $1 million in sales), and commodities vary substantially in market value and acreage requirements. Continue reading Organic Farm Concentration
Organic Distribution & Retail Structure
The chart above is based on data from the Organic Trade Association. Sales of organic food have increased approximately 20% annually since 1990. The Organic Agriculture Centre notes similar trends in Canada and conservatively estimates annual sales of at least C$1 billion in 2006. Mass market channels accounted for 46% of all organic foods sold in the US in 2005. An increasing number of supermarkets, … Continue reading Organic Distribution & Retail Structure
Philip H. Howard 